Nokia N8 - user opinions and reviews
- Wheez
- nSS
husi, 14 Sep 2010I just wanted to see if it opens the 'chat' feature on facebook (the PC version).. umm, I thin... moreSome comforting words from my-symbian forum:
Well, what I can say for now is that overall quality, look&feel, build precision, materials, etc. are simply OUTSTANDING and in this regard the N8 is surely the best Nokia smartphone ever made. The all plastic N900 does not even come close in terms of build quality. It was cold outside when the courier delivered the package and when I was taking the N8 from the box when I touched it for the first time that cold metal casing was really a nice feeling. The screen is also just.... lovely and works just like what you'd expect from a capacitive multitouch display.
I must say I am also extremely (positively) surprised when it comes to performance. The device boots in less than 30 seconds (including the Nokia Hands animation) and everything works exceptionally fast. I am not exaggerating here, it is really a ROCKET.
For several days I've been also testing the Vivaz and Vivaz pro, which both have the fastest processor ever used in a Symbian phone (Cortex-A8 720 MHz), i.e. faster and more advanced than N8's ARM1176 @ 680 MHz, but compared to the N8 they feel like snails.
I've also ran some benchmarks (e.g. GLBenchmark 1.1) and while Vivaz's get results considerably better (often even twice) than e.g. the Samsung Omnia i8910 HD, the N8 in turn outperforms the Vivaz/Vivaz Pro twins in graphic performance almost TWICE. It looks that even though its processor is slower, the GPU (hardware accelerator) of the N8 is considerably faster. Vivaz has PowerVR SGX530 GPU while the N8 has Broadcom VideoCore III.
http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=1106424
If it's that much faster than SGX530, then I wouldn't be surprised if it was offering performance similar to the SGX535 like in the iPhone 4.
As much as I am not a huge fan of S60, I must say that N8's Symbian^3 is a really huge step forward in terms of user experience. Even though everything looks almost the same, it's all the small tweaks and improvements that make it a wholly different story. Even just getting rid of that annoying and inconsistent double-tap on some items makes it much more pleasant to use, and along with the overall great performance it really works as it should have been from the beginning.
Oh, and they FINALLY changed the landscape mode to ALWAYS show the virtual buttons at the BOTTOM of the screen and not on the right side (on S60 5th Edition phones it works this way only on the home screen while on all other screens the buttons are on the right, eating some 20% of screen area) so now the landscape mode offers considerably more usable screen area, i.e. full width, with only a small button bar at the bottom. Again, just as it should have been from the beginning.
The camera (both video and stills) are indeed of exceptional quality and there are also some really nice small things about it like e.g. tiny internal "cover" over the lens that opens and closes automatically as you launch or close the camera app.
Would I switch from the N900 to the N8? Most probably no. I still prefer Maemo's UI, its higher resolution screen and its openness. So as much as I am really excited about the N8, my upgrade path from the N900 will be the N9.
I'd say eye candy is very well balanced against performance and usability. Transitions and effects are very subtle, yet still noticeable. And they're REALLY fast, well, at least on a "fresh" device that's not stuffed too much. I got the device three days later than promised and had to send it back today, so I only had three days to play with it, way too little to draw any final conclusions on how it will behave with lots of software installed, or how battery will perform in normal daily use, etc. I didn't have enough time to even just test how the Power Saving Mode improves battery life. But such a 'fresh' device performed EXCEPTIONALLY well. I'm still wondering how the N8 with a 680 MHz ARM11 can be that much faster than e.g. Vivaz with 720 MHz OMAP3...
I was promised that I will get another, almost final unit in a week or so, and for longer testing, so based on it I will be able to talk about all the details.
Back to eye candy, the UI looks much more elegant. All the changes are actually quite small and subtle, but maybe that's why I like them. Users don't have to learn the UI from the scratch, it's just that certain annoying things have been fixed and the UI got a face lifting. Transitions, fades etc. were 100% smooth and - as I wrote - very subtle, which means short/quick. This way, while making the UI look nicer, they do not slow it down unnecessarily.
Kinetic scrolling is supported everywhere, in all applications, system screens, image viewer, web browser, etc. And it is 100% smooth, too. Scrolling between pictures in the gallery is simply superb, just what you'd expect. Definitely not worse than on the iPhone.
Kinetic scrolling in the web browser is also nice, however some 'heavy' pages with large flash content tend to lag a bit, i.e. they start scrolling with some slight delay, but the actual scrolling is smooth, too. Lightweight pages scroll instantly. So I guess it's flash that affects the performance.
Pinch-to-zoom also works really nicely, both for images and web pages. There's really nothing to complain about in this regard.
Quote:
Does the audio player contain the 'cover flow' type display of album covers that was demonstrated in the s^3 preview video?
Yes. Please see the screenshot below. It looks and works really great and smooth, too.
http://download.my-symbian.com/Forum_pics/n8media.jpg
The impression I got regarding the eyecandy is that Nokia finally hired someone with GOOD TASTE to tune it. Subtle and quick transitions, really nice scrolling, and even the vibrator tuned for very nice and gentle feeback when you touch the screen. It is still the S60 platform and it couldn't magically turn into something completely different, so e.g. the built-in applications like Calendar or email client are still the same and may be too simple for more demanding users, but the overall user experience has really improved A LOT.
If Maemo/Meego didn't exist and I had to choose a new smartphone, I'd happily get the N8. I just wish it had a WVGA screen. nHD on 3.5" looks a little bit too pixelized, and the icons could be a bit smaller, too.
- AMANITA
- upf
husi, 14 Sep 2010I just wanted to see if it opens the 'chat' feature on facebook (the PC version).. umm, I thin... moreYeah I also wanted to know about facebook chat option ! But I think only N900 have it ! I tried to search about it but I didnt found it in any video !
- AMANITA
- upf
AMANITA, 14 Sep 2010It would be great if it had 800 or 850mhz cpu,phone could be faster than this, but I cant expe... moreDoesnt affect on*
- AMANITA
- upf
It would be great if it had 800 or 850mhz cpu,phone could be faster than this, but I cant expect that as nokia/symbian never did it ! Anyway,browsing photos and web,scrolling is superfast,I like it ! I have always accepted Symbian for itz functions,it can do everything what I want ! Itz always balanced !
Every phone or os compromise with something and yeah,symbian always compromise with processors,speed ! But it doesnt make my love for the N8,only N8 can satisfy me and itz already qualified to be my lover ,lolz ;)
- husi
- 2Zj
Wheez, 14 Sep 2010Sadly I don't use facebook myself, got any other flash heavy sites you would wanna see?I just wanted to see if it opens the 'chat' feature on facebook (the PC version).. umm, I think playing videos on Youtube (again the PC version) would be helpful too :) or hey, maybe viewing 360' of any mobile here on gsmarena would also be great :) thanxx ^_^
- Wheez
- nSS
husi, 14 Sep 2010yoo great! If you do so, plz do real n heavy stuff like opening web pages, open the facebook (... moreSadly I don't use facebook myself, got any other flash heavy sites you would wanna see?
- husi
- 2Zj
Wheez, 14 Sep 2010Well, I'm gonna do a video run through the day when I get the phone in to my hands (I'm from F... moreyoo great! If you do so, plz do real n heavy stuff like opening web pages, open the facebook (the original version, not the mobile) I wanna see the flash support..also play asphalt 5, and open 15 apps simultaneously and see if it lags..thanxx :) All these things would make me realize that m doing the right thing buying it :D Cuz m still 85% sure m gonna get it ;)
- Wheez
- nSS
husi, 14 Sep 2010But I want a smartphone, a perfect phone! All my life I've used symbian, n I like it..I can do... moreWell, I'm gonna do a video run through the day when I get the phone in to my hands (I'm from Finland, they are manufactured here so should be amongst the first) and put it into youtube. It will not be a review, I will just try to show as much as possible so that ppl can make their own decision whether it's "good enough" for them.
Maybe you wait till then or try to look for videos now that have recent software.
Galaxy S is an awesome device and only gets better each update (still has problems, but what doesn't?)
- husi
- 2Zj
Wheez, 14 Sep 2010I've said it since I came to this forum. If you put high ephasis on games and apps, you might ... moreBut I want a smartphone, a perfect phone! All my life I've used symbian, n I like it..I can do everything I want/need to do! But its laggy no matter how high end device you buy, if you compare to the Galaxy S and all! its kinda slow! Thats the only reason I wanna switch to Android, They have git even lag fixes for Galaxy S so that it can literally fly now!! But when m spending more than 25000 rs on a phone I expect it to atleast do things perfectly the things it is meant to do.. If games lag, opening a folder that contains 20 applications takes like 2 seconds, opening messaging applications takes 3 seconds if it has more than 3000 msgs, or pinch to zoom in web lags and doesnt work fine, even heavy web pages are not fully displayed and usually gives the error out of memory or system error or too many application open! So tell me how good is that :( You know how n97 performs, but dont you think adding 128mb RAM to it and a few more MHz CPU would increase the performance? Have to admit that symbain^3 would be heavier than V5..All we can rely on is a dedicated GPU, I hope its enough to save the day.. With every update of my phone I make sure it has better camera than the previous one, thats why I cant buy Galaxy S, and thats why I like n8..but lately I've been thinking Im missing too much running after the awesome camera my trust on symbian and nokia..I can only afford to spend this 25k for once, and so I've got to make sure I buy the right thing..Since I've used symbian and Nokia all my life, I trust them and can spend on them..But cant take any risk buying Android unless they have to offer something huge like 12MP :D
- Duel
- niD
Mac, 14 Sep 2010Iphone sucks! N8 is way better than iphone...That's so stupid to say, how you think you know what i like/need on my iphone and what i don't like on N8?
I think i know better which phone i like than you ;)
Its stupid to say some phones are better than others it's all about what you want to do with the phone and what you need.
Example i'm musician and all those stuffs what i found on appstore cant found on ovistore, and iphone is very popular among of music people/artist so every interesting stuffs comes to appstore first.
Everyone say, but hey N8 has hdmi and usb otg etc.
Well those are good for someone, but i dont do nothing with those.
Only thing which give a wow about N8 is camera and it's easily best on the smartphones.
- New waver
- vGi
[deleted post]It was said that it starts shipping around sept 30 for most regions. Don't know about qatar though. You'd be better inquiring at stores mate. :)
- Wheez
- nSS
husi, 14 Sep 2010Donno man, still confused :( BTW I prefer speed games and sports games to play (on computer ... moreI've said it since I came to this forum. If you put high ephasis on games and apps, you might be better off with an iPhone. I've said that to everyone even if I support Nokia and the N8 and I even work indirectly for Nokia.
- New waver
- vGi
Anonymous, 14 Sep 2010The new nokias!!!
Read about them here!
http://whatisimple.blogspot.com/Do you write that blog mate ? :) Because I don't see a reason to read that one. The posts aren't even in double digits and the guy didn't even base his opinions on any real use but what other people had to say about the phones. It doesn't tell anyone that they don't already know.
No offense.
- husi
- 2Zj
Wheez, 14 Sep 2010Also, remember that most games wont have as much changing surroundings as driving games, I'd f... moreDonno man, still confused :(
BTW I prefer speed games and sports games to play (on computer as well as on mobile).. but when m on phone, in addition to these games I also enjoy motion sensor based games and soft games which are fun to play :) like FBTwisted, roller coaster of 5230, table hockey (the titanic), Angry birds etc etc :D
- New waver
- vGi
Mac, 14 Sep 2010Iphone sucks! N8 is way better than iphone...He did not make a comment which read "N8 sucksssss Iphone is the bosss !! Yeaaayyyyyyyyy !!". He simply said that he liked it. Look up "being normal" man !
- Wheez
- nSS
husi, 14 Sep 2010Now when he has brought it up I feel it cant even run a good game well :( M disappointed, late... moreA little story that I learned about optimization.
I beta tested a game for PC called All Points Bulletin (APB).
The game ran on unreal engine, used on endless amounts of games, most of which had zero performance issues even if some of them looked simply stunning with huge amount of details. APB used the same engine, without looking particulary good, but it had alot of customization.
Anyways, many times I ran into posts on the beta forums with people complaining about horrible FPS/other performance. Often people had the exact same specs apart from like one component, the other guy had an ATI and the other one had an nVidia.
Even if the gfx cards were pretty much exactly as good, the nVidia guy would've had 30 more fps. Just cos he had an nVidia.
The game still struggles to run as well on ATI cards, I don't know if they didnt have the time to optimize it well or if it was hard, but just that one different component made it run from another planet.
Maybe asphalt was designed to run well on.. say.. Snapdragon and struggles with ARM 11 and dedicated GPU (other phones runnign asphalt dont have them, maybe it cant take use of the GPU atm)
- Mac
- YQB
Duel, 14 Sep 2010But hey camera is really awesome ;) i saw today here new shots, and i have to say they look st... moreIphone sucks! N8 is way better than iphone...
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